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Cleaning and restoration tips

How Smoke Damages Electronics
Cleaning and restoration tips

How Smoke Damages Electronics

A fiery blaze unleashes smoke, and microscopic smoke particles can find their way into the inner parts of various electronics. The fragile circuitry of electronic devices makes them especially susceptible to smoke damage. Once soot and smoke permeate an electrical device, irreversible damage is possible. What is smoke? Smoke is an unavoidable outcome of fire and it consists of gases, water vapor and particles. Mostly made up of carbon, smoke contains various chemicals and fumes, which vary in accordance to the type of material that is burned, whether plastic or wood, for instance. Dioxins, a toxin that is harmful to humans, are present when plastic burns. Nitrogen oxide is released when wood burns. Highly acidic chemicals, like sulfur dioxide, acetic acid and hydroch...
Cleaning and restoration tips

Safety Tips to Prevent Space Heater Fires

With the severely cold temperatures that winter brings, keeping warm is a priority to stay safe and healthy. To protect yourself against the cold, you can bundle up with warm clothing, heavy jackets, and other winter accessories. When staying indoors, the best ways to stay warm are to turn on the heat or even cozy up in front of the fireplace if you have one. Some parts of a property can be more difficult to warm than others. However, it is not practical to increase the overall temperature in your residential or commercial property just to accommodate one area. In such a situation, a space heater can solve this issue because it allows you to provide supplemental heat for a certain area without having to adjust the overall temperature of the property. As with any...
Restoring Fire and Smoke Damage in the Kitchen
Cleaning and restoration tips, Fire Damage Restoration

Restoring Fire and Smoke Damage in the Kitchen

  The kitchen is one of the most aesthetic and active areas of the home. It’s a place to entertain, cook, and even eat for some families. This room is essentially the heart of all homes, which is why a fire in this area can be the most devastating. Even small fires in one area of the kitchen is enough to cause and spread severe damage and interrupt daily activities. The most important action to take after a fire is to ensure the safety of yourself and loved ones. Ensure to create and practice your fire safety and escape plan frequently with your family so everyone knows what to do if a fire breaks out. But after extinguishing the fire, you need to start taking action to limit and clean up the damage. Here are some tips on restoring fire and smoke damage in the k...
Prevent Water Damage by Keeping Your Home’s Gutters Clean and Repaired
Cleaning and restoration tips, Water damage restoration

Prevent Water Damage by Keeping Your Home’s Gutters Clean and Repaired

The welcome, warmer climate of spring brings with it torrential rain. Springtime downpours fall straight into a home’s gutter systems, making a clean gutter essential. The balmy temperatures of spring allow homeowners to ascend to their rooftops and bring down the host of debris that has accumulated along the gutter throughout the frosty winter. A spring season gutter cleaning removes all the accumulated debris from the winter. Plus, spring gutter cleanings are necessary due to the fact that the spring blossoms and seeds of trees and plants develop and can potentially land in the gutter, causing blockage problems. Gutter Cleaning to Avoid Water Damage A blocked gutter leads to a significant issue—water damage. When the spring’s rainwater and melting snow along the rooftop have nowhere...
How to Clean Your Washing Machine and Dryer
Cleaning and restoration tips, Mold cleaning

How to Clean Your Washing Machine and Dryer

As your clothes whirl around the washing machine, your trusty appliance puts your clothes through the ringer. An essential household unit, the washing machine dutifully breathes new life into your garb and adds a fresh scent to newly laundered apparel. The dryer has an equal importance in your home, completing the other half of the task of cleaning your tops and bottoms. If you weren’t aware before, you soon will recognize the importance of washing machine and dryer maintenance. Regularly Clean the Washer How often should you clean the washing machine? Regular machine cleanings prevent detergent streaks from appearing on newly laundered whites and darks. The white residue from the soaps used to wash your clothes is more apparent on dark colored apparel. Fabric softener and the dirt ca...
How Hoarding Impacts Health Insurance Costs
Cleaning and restoration tips, Hoarding Cleaning

How Hoarding Impacts Health Insurance Costs

Junk occasionally clutters the average person’s home. Extreme situations, however, are indications of an underlying issue. When the tendency to accumulate random possessions overtakes the home, blocking exits and entrances, causing fire hazards and creating a toxic environment, a detrimental hoarding disorder has taken grip. Hoarding Disorder Defined A hoarding disorder involves collecting objects randomly and without specific rhyme or reason. Hundreds of empty pill bottles, used cat litter, decades’ worth of old fast food receipts and plastic drinking cups, broken glass, and even animal waste may lay in a disastrous mess inside a hoarder’s home. People with a hoarding disorder may even accrue innumerable animals, like cats. Stockpiling these items severely restricts the homeowner...
Things You Must Throw Away After a Fire
Cleaning and restoration tips, Safety Tips

Things You Must Throw Away After a Fire

When your property suffers damage from a fire, it is a stressful situation. Building materials have been destroyed, and the building’s structural integrity may be in jeopardy if the damage is severe enough. In addition, some of your content may have also been harmed due to exposure to heat, smoke, soot, and chemicals that were used to extinguish the fire. When you return to your property, you’ll need to sort through your belongings. Some damaged content can be salvaged, but there are other belongings that, no matter how little damage they suffered, must be discarded. Refer to the following information as you go through your content in the aftermath of a fire. 1. Exposed and/or Contaminated Food Non-perishable food that has been exposed to the fire and its effects Food that is st...
Cleaning and restoration tips, Fire Damage Restoration

How to Remove Soot from Walls

You don’t need to experience a large fire in your home or business to have soot on the walls and ceiling. Fireplaces and candles can leave dark, smoky residue on the interiors of your rooms, and years of cigarette and cigar smoke can turn light colored walls dull and dingy. Restoring Soot and Smoke Damage Removing soot from an entire home will require professional help, but it’s easy to learn how to remove soot from walls in smaller cleaning situations. Cleaning soot from walls requires more than just wiping away the residue however; improper cleaning techniques can spread soot and make things look even worse. Follow these suggestions to learn how to clean soot from walls without causing further damage. As with any cleaning job, you’ll need the right tools to ensure you can get th...
Common Types of Hoarding Behaviors
Cleaning and restoration tips

Common Types of Hoarding Behaviors

While the average American sees thousands of ads everyday, telling them to buy, buy, buy and spend, spend, spend, the items they do buy will often replace others in their home. There is a cycle that flows to prevent the accumulation of too many items on their property. Items Accumulating in the Home But for others, there is no cycle. Whether the individual is financially successful or not, items from significant to no value become hoarded on the property. Over time, they will take over the entire living space, creating safety hazards, blockages, and emotional stress. On the other hand, the individual who owns the excess amount of contents is often battling a worse issue than just a messy home. They find it emotionally straining to part with items – regardless of their value – due ...
Cleaning and restoration tips

Tips for Cleaning Your Warehouse

A commercial warehouse oftentimes houses the goods a business sells, like forklifts, machinery, and supplies to help run the business efficiently. But when the warehouse is in disorder, the situation communicates disarray to the CEO, visitors and suppliers. The company’s reputation is built on not only sales and services, but how well the property as a whole is kept organized. A warehouse is just as important as the corporate offices. The Importance of Having a Clean Warehouse 1. Higher Employee Productivity Impressions are not the only reason to keep your warehouse in tip-top shape. When employees work in a cluttered warehouse, morale suffers and staff feel overwhelmed. The CEO of the company may be inclined to believe that warehouse supervisors could care less about their work ...